The Stairs
It was a decision I made later on to put in the addition of
rounded stairs to my design. I felt the door design
needed more of an epic presence. When it was all flat on the floor I felt it
needed something more, so the addition of round stairs is the conclusion I came
too. I posted about the 2 initial stair
designs I did earlier on my blog. I created them in Google SketchUp and asked
my friends and family which looked better, square or rounded stairs. I also
showed them my influence shots of God of War 3 architecture and after that, the
majority said rounded stairs were the best option. Here is how I made them!
1: I selected the sphere from the polygon shelf, sized it up
correctly against the door and wall and then used the boolean tool and
“difference” option to literally cut away the back half of the sphere/circle
shape from the back of the wall where it was poking through.
2: Using the extrude tool, I was able to select the entire
bottom face of the sphere and offset it by -5 to bring it outwards from the
shape. This was in essence, the new stair. I then re selected the new stair and
used the extrude tool again only this time I needed to make it bigger as
opposed to offsetting it so I set “offset “ to 0 and the thickness to -1 to
bring the entire shape down. This in turn created the second step.
3: I basically rinse and repeat part 1 & 2 to make the
final step.
4: I used boolean on the first step but what I didn’t realise
was that when I used the extrude, offset and thickness tool that this would
also make the lower two stairs stick out the back of the first stair and beyond
the back of the wall and door. I used the spacebar and entered the viewport so
that I could accurately use another boolean to cut the back end off.
The final outcome, view from behind
Final outcome from the side/front view
The Archway
This is another section that went through a slightly more
improvised design change. As I was looking at my roof/upper door designs done
earlier in Google SketchUp I didn’t feel they were strong enough. I decided to
look back through my God of War 3 architecture influence images and I picked an
arch way which seems to be a common “door topper” in the game. Plus we were
told that our door needed to appear as if it would just appear right into the
game, therefore I figured this design change was for the best.
1: I opened a sphere from the polygon shelf, rotated it
90degrees so that it was facing me and then re sized it appropriately.
2: I then used the infamous boolean tool to remove the lower
half of the circle by placing a bigger cube shape where I needed it to remove
the sphere.
3: Now that I have my semi circle, basic arch shape I need to
actually create the arch hole in the centre. To do this I used the interactive
split tool to literally select the centre of the semi circle and, with free
hand, cut another semi circle I could then cut away to create the hole. I did
this on both sides of the shape.
4: I was then able to right mouse click and select faces, then
manually delete the faces I had created using the interactive split tool so I
was left with the archway hole.
5: As I used the interactive split too with a free hand and was guessing where the centre was,
there was no doubt going to be areas that were wonky. To make sure it was all
even I used the viewport and right click selected vertex. This was I was able
to then use the move tool and manually select vertices into place with the aid
of the grid to keep them all in place so it wasn’t wonky and everything matched
up in its right place.
6: Now that everything was even, I had to fill the shape as all
I had was a sort of taco shaped arch with no filling. This was simple enough to
fix, I selected the object and used the fill too under mesh. It filled it in
nicely as you can see. What I then did was used the interactive split tool
again to join the faces all the way around the inside of the arch way so that
it had the correct geometry.
7: To finish off the detail in the arch I needed to make the
edges stick out in a similar fashion to the pillars. To do this I needed to add
extra geometry into the shape so that I could manipulate it (ignore the shape
in the middle, that will be the next part I show you). To do this I inserted symmetrical edge loops
horizontally and vertically around the shape.
8: The final stage was to use the extrude tool to offset the
faces inwards and then change the thickness so that the selected offset faces
were set back into the arch to complete the shape.
Final outcome
Archway Stone Detail
Most of the God of War 3 doors have a special detail on them
somewhere or another, mostly just stone shapes that add structure and detail to
the doors frame. A lot of the doors seemed to have an angled cube shape in the
centre of the archway above the door so I figured I would follow suit to ensure
my door and archway detail fitted into the game architecture.
1: Using a standard cube from the polygon shelf I re seized it
and then used the extrude tool to offset the bottom of the cube.
2: Reselecting the new smaller and offset face, I was able to
re use the extrude too to this time pull the face down at an angle by changing
the thickness.
3: I then needed to use the extrude tool on the entire top face
to pull it out at an angle to create the overall main shape of the stone
archway detail.
4: Using my best friend Mr boolean I was able to use another
larger cube to cut away the back section of the stone detail which would stick
out at a funny angle (due to the extrudes) from the wall, I needed it to have a
flat back.
5: Using the viewports I was able to perfectly align my stone
detail over the top of the archway and against the wall.
Note: I have mentioned the wall a few times, it was so simple to make
that I haven't done a guide to it, it’s literally 1 cube polygon with an
extruded face to create the floor. Simple. I might add more detail to the wall
later if the texture I put on it doesn’t look good enough, maybe make it into
large stone sections as that’s what they would have used back then to create
the wall. But again, that is a decision that will come later.
6: Now for my other trusty friend, extrude! I was able to
offset the main/front face of the stone detail and then re select it to edit
the thickness and make it sit further back into the main shape giving it more
of a 3D presence. I plan to put texture detail in the centre of this shape,
perhaps even in Mudbox but I doubt time will allow for that.
The final outcome
One main thing to note is how I haven't extruded the faces on
the left and right side of the stone detail. This is because when I did it
looked strange where the archway intersected the stone detail. Therefore I left
it flat so it appeared as though the archway clearly goes straight through
either side of the stone detail. I also extruded the bottom faces of the stone
too and these were done on the left and right side as well as the front because
this part of the stone hangs down below the arch and doesn’t get intersected by
any other part of the mesh.
The Finished Door!
…and by finished I mean, still needs tweaking but the main mesh
is complete. After showing Mark he told me I need to do the following:
- Think about dragging the verts to main corners of the
structure, select > vertices > edit mesh > merge vertices tool >
click and drag vertices to main corners of structure. Tri’s are okay however,
quads are best. Quads still count when their edges are at an angle.
- Consider making the mesh more “organic”, perhaps using the soft
selection tool under the move options (double click move tool), then use either
volume of surface to move around your area.
- Consider using a bevel on the sharp corners on the pillars and
also on the edge of the stairs to avoid an infinitely sharp surface.
